Newspapers and handwritten warning signs covered the doors of 111 Forum this weekend, as No Refund Theatre’s production of “The Penis Monologues ” took the stage to a shocked and enthusiastic crowd.
“The Penis Monologues” tells a series of explicit experiences that detail the dramatic triumphs and embarrassing failures that go along with being a man. The play is a male-oriented take on Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues.”
From stories about circumcision and kidney stones, to tales of drunken mistakes and male strippers, no topic was too raunchy for the show.
Audience members were encouraged to heckle the actors, something many of them were happy to do.
Yet no one was safe in the crowd, as the cast didn’t confine itself to the stage. The actors had no problem getting up close and extremely personal with anyone and everyone.
At one moment, an actor got in the face of Alix Tucker and frantically asked her “if size matters.”
“I couldn’t stop laughing,” Tucker (junior-classics and ancient Mediterranean studies) said of the experience. “It was so hilarious and totally unexpected.”
The popularity of the show has led it to become an annual tradition for NRT that’s performed every spring semester.
In Kate Herskovitz’s opinion, the cast outdid itself with this year’s production.
“It was even better than last year’s show,” Herskovitz (junior-telecommunication) said. “The strip tease at the end was definitely an unexpected surprise.”
Brandi Wesley, who saw “The Vagina Monologues” last year, said NRT’s spin-off is more “open and vulgar” than the original.
“It was a lot funnier than I expected,” Wesley (sophomore-biobehavioral health) said. “Their interactions with the audience were pretty hilarious. I loved it.“
Jamie Altman said she was “laughing the entire time.”
“I really liked how they got in everyone’s face,” Altman (junior-interdisciplinary digital studio) said. “I would definitely see it again.”
